Crinkled tinsel producing machine



Feb, 118, 1936;

P. KRANZ ET AL CRINKLED TINSEL PRODUCING MACHINE Filed Dec. 29, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 swuh Q a Feb, 18, 1936. P, KRANZ ET AL 2,@31,566

CRINKLED TINSEL PRODUCING MACHINE Filed Dec. 29, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Y ATTORNEY Patented Feb. 18, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Ima climate-'1)- mists PRobUCING MACHINE Philip kra'n'z, Philadelphia, and Adolph Hartmann; ElkinsiPark', Pa., assignors to Bernard Wilmsen', Philadelphia, 4 h V I Attuaaetaiiaafitr 29, i934, se r-s1 No. 759,706

1 oiaim. (01.153 77) urinve'ntion relates'to' a new m1 useful m c e iorproducing'aparticular fo I) v tinsel jof the type which consists of na'rr v v "01' lu'stius foil commonly used in thede oration 5' 'of c ist nastrees and on other festive I ro'us tinsel of this'ki'nd haslhere'to orebeen deby cutting a fiat sheet of foil intostripsof th'desiied width, generally or of an inch wide, and cut transversely in any desired lengths. Whiletihselof this type'is highly ue fiive py 'e of its light reflecting qualities. ithasbeen ddesirable to increase the light "reflect n es of the tinsel and to impart to al light reflecting qualities lbyflbi H nitially smo'othor flat surface oithe tinsel a plurality of li'ght renectmggsurfacesdi sed l'iri different planes, and to end' it It the. practice to subject the plain'or smooth itinsel aiter it is cut .to a second ojperfltibnf ior the purpose of corrugating or otherwise roughg thesuriace of the tinseh sucnas by passing e1 after it is'cutbetween oners, the-cont r g surfac s of which have the osire k nu l ing, roughening, or design. Other Ih'thlOdSQfQr interrupting the plain smooth'suriace of the tinsf ha view to increasing its light' refleij fi avebeeri used, all Sublfnithhds; as V weareaware, have involved" theiut liza ion eor more a'dditional operation which were ed f on after the, tinsel had been "out from ntinuous sheet, thus resulting in increased m, e w m ni and mpha jdnn Furmore; any roughenin'g, corrugation, o crim of the' tinsel by means of such secondary ,oipone as are above described resulted in a tinsje oughen'ed' or crimpedor'corrugated ccord ing to" a predetermined design, which whilerdiffer- F; iqmlii' m re t iv th nth rla e 'sfiiooth "tinsel is nevertheless subject to: the 'objectlon of monotony thatjsuchtinsel ,is' all uni embossed with a particular repeatingde- In order'to overcome the foregoing objections andto; produce a tinsel. which has agidistinctly hovel crinkled appearance and the crinkling of ich presents the appearance of infinite variety, e g s dain l ch ne'whifihn qdu e r twi k in v in he inse im l e us y with the cutting thereof and without the necessit si subjectmg the tinsel to a second operation after it is cut.

v Our nvention still furtherrelates to'a imieegphsit to produce or to operate than the standard machines which cut the plain or smooth .unc' rinkled tinsel.

@Our inv'ention further relates to a machine of t s character which embodies in its design novel means for insuring the constant flow of tinsel through the machine to prevent the jamming of the. tinsel between the cutters. V I Qur inv'ention still further relates to various 'other novel features of construction and advanta'ge, all as hereinafter described and claimed in connection with the accompanying drawings in Fig. 1 represents a fragmentary and diagramniatic plan view of a crinkled tinsel producing machine embodying our invention. 7

2 represents a section on line 2-2 of Fig. 1. 4 .l' ig. 3 represents a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 4 illustrating the relative positions of the circular cutters with respect to the sheet of foil to be cut. Fig e represents a section on line 44 of Fig. 3 showing details of construction. 7

ig. 5 represents a fragmentary diagrammatic View illustrating the cutting of the foil into tinsel.

6 represe nts a View similar to Fig. 5 but illustrating the position of the parts and the crinkli'ng of the tinsel while it is cut as shown in Fig. 5. n h

Fig fl represents a diagrammatic plan view, on a greatly enlarged scale, of a piece of tinsel cut and crinkled according to the showing of Figs. 5 and Referring to the drawings in which like referencecharacters indicate like parts, our novel crinkled tinsel cutting machine comprises the housings 2 and (3 in which are journalled the various shafts carrying the various parts with pro l rbea'rings (not shown). The machine is driven byfthe usual fast and loose pulleys 5 and 5' 6n the shaft 8 which carries the driving gear l0 which in turn meshes with the driving gear ostile shaft l2. The driving gear ll meshes with the gear l3 which in turn also meshes with the gear [4. The gears 13 and M are fast on the I5 and I6, respectively. The shaft [6 carries the cutting blades l'l, I8, l9, 2!), etc., andthe shaft l5 carries thecorresponding but staggered cutting blades 2|, 22, 23, 24, etc., it being understood that the shafts l5 and [6 are provided with cutting blades over the entire length thereof whichin turn corresponds to the width of sheet 3 0: foil to be cut. The foil, as will be seen in F'g., 2, is in the form of a roll 35 on the 1. 3? 93?. 291 9. W i h. is su o ted by brackets 33 centrally of the meeting of the juxtaposed edges of the knives on the shafts i5 and IS. The cutting blades are rigid on their respective shafts and are spaced apart by the spacers 34, the thickness of which determines the space between any two adjacent knives. In addition to the spacers 34 there is interposed between the adjacent knives the loose rings 35 which are used as strippers or wipers and which always tend to assume the position shown in Fig. 3, in which the bottom edges of the loose rings protrude below the edges of the cutting knives, the function of these rings being constantly to push out the tinsel cut by the knives from the spaces between the knives to prevent the accumulation of the tinsel and the jamming thereof in said spaces and to insure the regular uninterrupted travel of the tinsel cut over the endless conveying belt (not shown) which moves below the cutters to deliver the cut tinsel to the packers.

Heretofore a strip tinsel of this character was completely out by a single circular cutter, the opposite edges of which were adapted to coact with the cutting edges of two spaced juxtaposed circular cutters, the tinsel strip being thus out along both of its longitudinal edges by the opposite cutting edges of a single blade acting in the same direction and the width of the tinsel strip being predetermined by the width of the cutting blade, which in turn corresponded to the spacing of the opposite coacting juxtaposed cutting blades. The tinsel strip thus cut, rested, during the cutting operation, flat against the smooth surface of the cutting blade intermediate the cutting edges of the blade, and the tinsel strip thus produced was flat or smooth surfaced in its finished form.

According to our invention, instead of utilizing a single blade of the width of the tinsel to be out, and the opposite cutting edges of which severed the opposite longitudinal edges of-the tinsel strip, to produce a flat tinsel, we utilize separate coacting juxtaposed pairs of relatively thin blades, (the thickness of which is well below the width of the tinsel to be cut) to cut the opposite longitudinal edges of the tinsel strip, so that a tinsel strip cut by our machine will have one longitudinal edge thereof cut by the coacting edges of one pair of juxtaposed coacting cutters (working in one direction) and the opposite longitudinal edge of the same strip will be simulta neously cut by the coacting edges of another pair of juxtaposed cutters (working in the opposite direction), the width of the strip being dependent upon the spacing of the pairs of coacting juxtaposed pairs of cutters and not on the width or thickness of one cutter or the total Width or thickness of the cooperating cutters. By virtue of this arrangement the body of the tinsel strip is not supported while the opposite longitudinal edges thereof are being severed by the separate pairs of coacting juxtaposed knives, which due to the torque or strain on the opposite longitudinal edges of the strip during the cutting operation, and the bearing of the knives thereon, together with the form retaining nature of the metal foil, results in the uniformly heterogeneous crinkling of the body of the tinsel strip in the manner hereinafter more fully explained.

In order more fully to explain the structure of the strip and the manner of its formation, we now refer to Fig. 4 and in this figure the coacting blades will be referred to by letters in order to avoid confusion with the numeral references utilized in connection with Fig. 1. Thus the sheet of tin foil 80 will, according to our assembly, be cut as shown in Fig. 4, in which the blade a coacts with the blade I) to sever one longitudinal edge of the strip while the blade d coacts with the blade e to cut the other longitudinal edge of the same strip of tinsel. The width of the strip thus cut is obviously determined by the distance between the coacting cutting edges of the pairs of blades ab and d-e. Illustrating this step a little more fully, we now refer to Fig. 5 in which the sheet of foil 3!] is shown immediately after it is severed into strips at a point in advance of the maximum overlapping position of the knives, Fig. 5 approximately illustrating the position of the parts along the line :z:y in Fig. 3. While the sheet 30 is being cut into strips as shown in Fig. 5 and while the coacting blades are overlapping each other (until the maximum overlapping position shown in Fig. 6 is attained, which, approximately, would represent the position of the parts along the line 44 of Fig. 3) the strips of tinsel cut will, due to the torque exerted in opposite directions on the opposite longitudinal edges 42 and 43 during the cutting thereof, due to the progressive overlapping of the blades, and due to the peculiar, flexible and yet form-retaining character of the foils used in the production of tinsel, be transversely and longitudinally crinkled all over their area in the manner only roughly, diagrammatically and imperfectly portrayed in Figs. 6 and 7.

Referring to the illustration in Figs. 6 and '7, we wish to point out that the drawings are highly diagrammatic, since it is impossible to depict with pen and ink the exact and highly esthetic effects produced on the tinsel, it being merely pointed out in connection with Figs. 6 and '7 that the tinsel strip 40 is crimped or crinkled in a uniformly irregular manner along its length and width to form uniformly irregular and irregularly uniform light-reflecting surfaces or projections. Thus as roughly portrayed in Fig. 7 the tinsel strip 40 has the central column of crinkles 4| which, when examined closely, appear like pyramids or cones, but which, due to their imperfect formation present an infinite variety in their composite appearance or effect. The central column 4| is bordered along its longitudinal edges by the slight grooves 42 and 44 which run the entire length of the strip in a manner sufiiciently uniform to give the effect of continuity and yet not with the severe exactitude of a groove made deliberately by a proper tool accurately applied. On either side of the grooves 42 and 44 are formed the columns 46 and 48 which are formed of alternating curvilinear or rectilinear high points or areas 49 and low points or areas 50. The high and low areas 49 and 50 are sufiiciently alike to give the effect of continuity, but since they are not made by the positive action of exact tools they are in their details very dissimilar, one from another, thus producing the effect of infinite variety.

It will thus be seen that by the novel arrangement of the knives I! to and 2| to 24, etc., that is wherein the cutters H and 2| will cut one longitudinal edge of the strip 40 while the blades I8 and 22 simultaneously out the opposite longitudinal edge of the same strip, with the body of the strip 49 squeezed into the space between the coacting blades in the direction of the arrows c and j, in Fig. 4, a tinsel strip 40 is produced which has a triple crinkling effect and the crinkling of which is sufficiently uniform to give the effect of homogeneous continuity and which at the same time represents in its details an infinite Variety.

It will further be seen that our novel arrangeill tinsel but also efiects the simultaneous cutting and crinkling of the tinsel strip without the necessity of a second operation for crinkling or the necessity of additional machinery for eflecting the crinkling or crimping as has heretofore been necessary. As far as we are aware by interposition of the floating rings 35 between the rotary cutters, which rings by their own weight and being loosely mounted on their respective shafts tend to assume their lowermost position, wherein said floating rings protrude beyond the effective peripheries of the cutters, we have produced novel means for closing the space between the cutters at the lower parts thereof to prevent the tinsel strips cut from entering the spaces between the cutters as distinguished from the conventional means heretofore employed for producing this result.

We claim:

A crinkled tinsel producing machine comprising a pair of juxtaposed shafts, a plurality of cutter disks rigidly mounted on said shafts-in staggered cooperative relation to each other, a plurality of spacer disks mounted on said shafts intermediate said cutter disks, said spacer disks being of considerably lesser diameter than the diameter of the cutter disks, and floating rings mounted loosely on said shafts whereby the bottom edges of said floating rings extend to and below the lower periphery of said cutter disks.

PHILIP KRANZ. ADOLPH HARTMANN. 

